Antelope Zodiac + Arrived

[dennis]

 

Hello, Chris! It's a pleasure to comment-- this is my first time on here.

 

Would it be presumptuous to suggest a review (ala the Alpha VS DAC202 review)...... concerning Lynx' new Hilo?

 

Curiosity is killing the Cat around here! What has Bob got going......

 

Are you able to review the Hilo soon?

 

Thanks, Chris, for all that you do.

 

---Dennis---

 

 

 

[christoph]

hi lolo

 

thank you for your input.

 

how would you describe the sonical difference between the plus and the gold? the plus is more forward and the gold is more velvety smooth (without losing detail, of course)?

 

have you also heard the resolution cantata mc? how would you compare that to the zodiac gold?

 

is it really true that the zodiacs dramatically open up after about 500 hours? even with the standard, cheap smps?

 

noone heard the plain vanilla zodiac?

from what i imagine from reading it's either the zodiac or the gold (for me). the plus should be too close to the zodiac, sonically?

the real "more" can be found in the gold? better output stage, remote control and different (better?) sound...

 

 

cheers, christoph

 

[arnolfini]

My Zodiac drastically opened up after 2034h of dry listening but I was seing a psychologist by then so it is not totally objective. Just kidding!

 

[Sgt. Blumenkraft]

Not sure whether opening up means also making a somewhat more natural, broader sound. I have a Zodiac Gold with Voltikus, tested against a Stylos Styx, against a Beresford Gatorized Caiman, and all tested on different setups. In all set- ups the Zodiac, although being clearly the most expensive, has the most narrow and hyped sound. Too much emphasis on clarity in the high pitches, killing your ears after a few hours. It is almost as if it wants to make up for a deficiency in your system that isn't there.

 

I like the simplicity of use, the fact that you can feed it's clock back to the PC (with a Lynx AES16, for example, although the set-up is somewhat unorthodox through digital XLR out rather than clock cable).

 

What really annoys me though is the inevitable clicking between tracks! I want to forget that I am listening to music out of a can! Anyone have a simple hint on whether I am doing something wrong here?

 

Also, on USB, even with clocking, I cannot get the quality I get on optical. Maybe not the DAC's fault in this case, as the Beresford shows the same behaviour.

 

 

[Clybourne]

Hi Ewige,

 

Some others had a similar reaction when they first heard the Gold, but reported significant improvement after 400-500 hours. I have no idea why this warm-up period is causing such a perceived change.

 

Also, are you on a Mac or PC?

 

Regards,

Marcel

 

[FabriceDelcarte]

Hello everyone,

 

My config briefly : Imac 27", iTunes, music up to 24 bit 96KHz (from Qobuz site), a pair of Focal Twin 6 be powered speakers, Home made Power filter (based on Badda LB 5600 with additional Schaffner filters), RME baby face sound card but very soon (ordered) a Antelope Zodiac (base model), a Korg Kronos Keyboard, home made shilded cables.

 

I am Happy to answer any question about my config but I am here to share my experience on building my own Voltikus PSU.

 

I have been testing many Dac's during the last year and I must say that I finally found the one : Antelope Zodiac (soon it will be mine). Looking at all three models, I decided that the cheaper model was all I needed even if it is part of my home studio. I have no use of the extras bits on the other models.

 

Being aware of the importance of a clean power to power up my stuff, I have been looking at the voltikus PSU from Antelope but I found it a little expensive (795€). I found the following pics (fist two images) showing the Voltikus from Inside and decided that I could make one at least as good as the Original one for way cheaper.

 

Below you can see the pic's of the one I have made, I couldn't test it on the Dac, as I haven't got it yet, but It is basically 18v 10W so less than 1A necessary to make it work. My Psu is a dual 12v - 18v 2x30W. So far the 12v stage is only to power up the led on the front switch; but later I might need it for another device. When you look at the original one it is made of a line filter, a Toroidal Transformer, an AC to DC circuit with a regulator. This is exactly what mine is.

 

- 1 schaffner FN9222B IEC connector line RMI/EFI Filter medical grade : 7,50€

- 1 Galaxy GX183 aluminum housing 44€

- 1 Toroidal Transformer 2x 18V 30VA 17,90€

- 1 Audiophonic PSU module HIFI grade (2 circuits) (AC-DC + regulator) 49€

- 250V 5A front switch with blue led and power logo 10,9€

- Some wires bits and pieces that I had at home let's say 10€

- the cable will be cut of the supplied PSU, shielded and connected to my own PSU

 

All together it Costed me 140 € (against 795 for the voltikus) and it took me about 3 hours to put it together.

 

I purchased the gears at : http://www.audiophonics.fr/ it is a french site but I am sure you can find equivalent modules in your own country. If you want to make it, I can give you the reference numbers, just ask.

 

I have checked the tensions with a good multimeter (Fluke 175). Output is 18.00V and the signal is flat. With the modules I have put together I believe my psu is at least as good the the Voltikus if not better. And I believe the look is quite good.

 

Have a good One.

 

 

 

 

[lolo77]

I wonder if someone has modified his Zodiac + or gold

 

I think that Burson Opamp could be a serious option…

but I would like to share with other owners who have tried some mods with succes.

 

I've sold mine gold/voltoikus

and after having tested some other brands, I've decided to buy new one with voltikus. And As I owned a masterclcok 10M, I've ordered an isochrone OCX to clock the Zodiac on the 10M.

 

 

 

[Cycles2]

Great to hear a report of the Zodiac finally in the hands of a user. Please keep us updated.

 

I've had my Antelope Zodiac Gold + Antelope Voltikus power supply for approx 5 months. I use the USB output to a an i5 Mac Mini with Leopard OS. I use PureMusic as my player. I have the Zodiac attached to my New Audio Frontiers integrated 845 SET amp using a Ridge Street Audio USB cable.

 

Prior to this in chronolgical order I've owned the:

 

Wavelength Brick (non-async version). What a rip-off.

Wavelength Cosecant (non async version). A bigger ripoff

I then stopped drinking the Wavelength Kool-Aid and purchased an UltraFi iRoc which is very musical and one of the best values out there at the time.

I upgraded to the UltrFi MusicStream which was a nice upgrade to the iRoc

I then upgraded to the dbLabs Tranquility which is the best USB DAC I've owned from a musical perspective before purchaing the Antelope Zodiac Gold

I've owned a Wryed 4 Sound DAC2 to get a taste of hi-rez recordings as my prior DACs only handled 44.1KHz.

After hearing some of the hi-rez tracks on HDTracks I decided that hi-rez was worthwhile and purchased the Antelope Zodiacc Gold/Voltikus power supply combo.

 

 

Not even close as the Zodiac Gold is superior in every way to the above DACs. Not even worth commenting on the Wavelength products as they were the most lifeless components I've ever owned. The owner will tell you that he voices his DACs purposely to not eggaerate the bottom end. That would be fine but lacking any sense of dynamics is not a good thing. To be fair, my experience with Wavelength was pre-async which I'm told is a noticeable improvement but I already swore off the Wavelenth merry-go-round.

 

If you only want to play Redbook 44.1KHz, save your money and buy a pre-owned dbLabs Tranquility as you can probably find one for about $700 and they're SO musical. However, if you want to get into hi-rez and don't want the obvious oversmapling sound of the Wyred 4 Sound DAC2, then the Zodiac Gold is the way to go, assuming it's within your budget. The Zodiac Gold gets everything right, from natural sounding, non-eggagerated bass with plenty of low end heft if it's in the recording to the most musical mids and highs of any DAC I've owned or heard. The dynamics are perfect and you never hear any sibilance as I would often hear with the Wyred 4 Sound DAC. I would've liked to audition the Weiss DAD202 using a FireWire connection to my MacMini as I understand its impressive.

 

The Zodiac Gold is also a terrific headphone amp as I use my Audeze LCD-2s with great results. I've been told that it's also a fairly impressive pre-amp but as my amp is an integrated I have no way to use the Zodiac Gold as a pre-amp.

 

It's also future proof as it will play native 384KHz tracks, although I'm not sure any exist today. I can't even imagine the disk storage we'll all need for that. I've played around with configuring my PureMusic software to oversample RedBook to 88.2KHz with good results. Any higher oversampling and the results seem to diminish.

 

Hope this helps.

[ted_b]

Cycles2, Hi. Nice report. I too loved my Gold/Voltikus for the nearly 2 years I owned the combo. And yes, a very good headphone capability. And as I've posted here before, I've NEVER found a better direct-to-amp capability than the Gold, mainly due to its very well executed step-relay attenuator remote volume setup. Are you running direct, or through a separate preamp/integrated/etc?

 

As for greater-than-192k sources, look to places like 2L for natively recorded DXD (aka 24/352k) downloads. Very nice indeed, and many are free to demo via their HD test bench, accessible from the home page..

[Cycles2]

Ted,

 

I'm using the Zodiac Gold with an integrated amp, so I have not been able to hear it as a digital pre-amp. If I ever decide to go the route of a different amp, based on your feedback I will definitely audition the Zodiac Gold as a preamp before purchasing one.

 

 

Cycles2, Hi. Nice report. I too loved my Gold/Voltikus for the nearly 2 years I owned the combo. And yes, a very good headphone capability. And as I've posted here before, I've NEVER found a better direct-to-amp capability than the Gold, mainly due to its very well executed step-relay attenuator remote volume setup. Are you running direct, or through a separate preamp/integrated/etc?

 

As for greater-than-192k sources, look to places like 2L for natively recorded DXD (aka 24/352k) downloads. Very nice indeed, and many are free to demo via their HD test bench, accessible from the home page..